xix, 321 pages, [16] pages of plates : 21 cm

"Hamilton skillfully interweaves his memories of residents with a history of the 23rd Street hotel, longtime proprietor Stanley Bard (who stepped down reluctantly this year) and the neighboring restaurant, El Quijote. Built in 1883, the Chelsea became a residential hotel for theater luminaries in 1905. Tenants since then have run the gamut from O. Henry and Dylan Thomas to Kerouac and Madonna. Famed books have been written at the Chelsea, including William Burroughs's Naked Lunch, but the establishment has also attracted a great many eccentrics, hustlers and crazies. Recent management changes and the Chelsea's uncertain future make this nostalgic portrait of the hotel's fabled madness all the more poignant"--Publisher's Weekly

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-318)

1995 : Culture shock -- 1996 : Bohemian flophouse -- 1997 : Bathroom hijinks -- 1998 : Crime and punishment -- 1999 : Declining fortunes -- 2000 : Eccentrics famous and obscure -- 2001 : Hollywood knocks -- 2002 : A different kind of currency -- 2003 : Ghosts and other abominations -- 2004 : Tricksters and inadvertent performers -- 2005 : Con games -- 2006 : Chelsea revenants

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